B. whereas even though such a figure remains modest by comparison with the population of the European Union, it nevertheless denotes a marked increase in the awareness of the right of petition and legitimate expectations regarding the usefulness of the petitions process as a means of securing the attention of the European Institutions and the Member States for the concerns of individual citizens, local communities, NGOs, voluntary associations and private businesses;

The CFI, by failing to order the disclosure of the evidence requested, has infringed the fundamental right to a fair trial to which the applicant is entitled, by refusing to assess evidence which is essential to the applicant's case thereby infringing its rights of defence, since its application was dismissed on the ground that it had not proved what it specifically sought to establish with the evidence which was not produced: if not the Commission's final position with respect to the complaint of 1994 against the tax rules of 1993 (including a tax credit), which are measures which are essentially the same as the contested measure, which ...[+++] rejected that complaint, then at least the attitude of the Commission which would constitute an exceptional circumstance in so far as its conduct gave rise to a legitimate expectation that the 1993 tax measures were lawful, which led to the adoption of the contested tax measure in 1996.

What is at stake here is the Union’s objective of economic, social and territorial cohesion. Despite the legitimate disappointment on the level of available resources for cohesion policy, it will be possible with appropriate rules for spending and programme implementation to achieve a great deal of improvement with regard to helping those regions which are lagging behind to catch up in socio-economic terms.

This Regulation, which is adopted for the implementation of these Treaty provisions, does not preclude Member States from implementing on their territory national legislation, which protects other legitimate interests provided that such legislation is compatible with general principles and other provisions of Community law.

4. Points out that one of the aims of the Treaty of Amsterdam was to remedy the lack of democratic legitimation of EU legal acts, so that any reduction of Parliament’s rights would run counter to the spirit of that Treaty;

The Commission will help to strengthen the capacity of developing countries to identify and seek their legitimate rights in relation to the provisions of the Biodiversity Convention in the biodiversity action plan currently under preparation (see also Section 5).